Speaking at a congressional budget hearing Wednesday, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus praised the Mobile-built littoral combat ship, offering a decidedly more upbeat assessment of the controversial program than his boss did in testimony last week.

The Obama administration has proposed cutting back on the original order, from 52 to 32 ships, which are built by Austal USA along the Mobile River and by a company in Wisconsin. Concerns over the ship’s firepower and ability to withstand enemy attack have further jeopardized the program.

U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus answers a question from Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, during a budget hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, March 12, 2014. Byrne questioned Mabus about the future of the littoral combat ship, which is built by Austal USA in Mobile and by a shipyard in Wisconsin.

The budget wrangling comes as the Pentagon this week awarded Austal contracts with $684 million to purchase two more of the vessels from the Mobile company.

U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, has used his short tenure in Congress to extol the virtues of the ship, which is small and fast. At a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Byrne on Wednesday likened the vessel to Muhammad Ali.

“When I look at the LCS, I’m reminded of my favorite boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, and he didn’t win his fights by sitting there and just taking punches,” he told Mabus. “He always said he liked to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. It seems to me, when I look at the LCS and what it was designed to do, it’s a Mohammad Ali. It floats like a butterfly – a very fast butterfly, as you know – and stings like a bee.”

Mabus answered that his and the chief of naval operations are LCS supporters.

“We believe that we need this ship in the fleet and appreciate very much that we are going to continue to building these to get to 32,” he said. “And as I said, the only pause here is a pause in contract negotiations in ships past 32. So that’s several years from now.”

Under questioning from Byrne last week, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel offered a decidedly more sour assessment of the ship. He questioned its capacity and the wisdom of the ship accounting for roughly a sixth of the downsizing Navy.

But Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute, said in an interview that he was in a recent meeting at the Pentagon in which Hagel defended the LCS.

“His point about the LCS isn’t that it’s a bad idea. He wants to see how it can address a wider spectrum of threats,” he said. “The solution is going to be to up-gun it.”

Another defense analyst, James Hassik, said the issue with the LCS is that it is the size of a frigate but does not carry nearly the same offensive firepower. He compared it to a variety of much smaller vessels in service in foreign navies.

“You look at the armament package, and it’s pretty comparable,” he said. “The problem is you’re buying the ship the size of a frigate.”

In his testimony Wednesday, Mabus said designing a new ship – one of the options that Hagel has asked him to explore – likely would take a decade. He said he does not know how much it would cost. He added that he likes the flexibility of the LCS, which has modular design that does not require a new hull or vessel as technology improves.

“I have to look at cost, because we’ve got to get enough of these ships, and I have to look at whether they could be delivered to the fleet,” Mabus said. “So if you add those requirements together, I do not know of another design. But that’s part of this look.”

Byrne noted that the cost of the LCS has declined from about $750 million per ship to $350 million per ship.

“The LCS is the only ship that we are producing anywhere close to that cost of a warship,” he said. “I am very proud of how much the cost has been driven down.”

Thompson said the contractors actually proposed altering the design to add more firepower, but the Navy rejected it out of concerns that it would break cost caps imposed by Congress. But he said adding firepower will be far cheaper than starting over from scratch with a new ship design.

He said he believes the Pentagon ultimately will buy the original commitment of 52 ships, likely with a redesigned vessel after the first 32 and then a retrofitting of the littoral combat ships already in service.

“Starting from scratch is out of the question,” he said. “I don’t think the Navy has a practical alternative.”

Hassik said he believes the LCS design could be pretty easily and inexpensively modified to add anti-ship weapons and sacrifice some speed for a longer range.

“If that’s the case, Austal is in a great, great position,” he said, explaining that it has an impressive flight deck and has more options in the export market than the version built in Wisconsin.

In a prepared statement, Byrne said he believes the LCS represents the future of the Navy.

“Its versatility and low cost to manufacture and operate are strong assets as we continue to consider its role in the future fleet,” he said. “I believe Secretary Mabus is absolutely correct that we need this ship in the fleet, and I will continue fighting to complete the full LCS order.”

Updated at 5:28 p.m. to include comments from defense analyst James Hassik.